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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Ok, so this is officially my favorite dessert! I can eat it anytime, anywhere, with anything! I just love chocolate tarts!!!

With rasberries, with caramel layers, with meringue, with whipped cream...THE JOY!

I recently came across this very delicious-looking recipe via Pinterest. I checked the recipe and thought I have to try this.

I didn't like the crust recipe so I just sticked to my foolproof buttery flaky one (Click here to see it). I love this crust, it always turns out the most falkiest, butter-iest, decadent crust ever and it can easily be adapted to suit whatever filling you want. Just change the amount of sugar, add some falvors and essences, some cocoa powder perhaps, or almond flour and voila..you have the perfect crust.

Lots and lots of butter!

Now, for the main star of the show!! The chocolate ganache. Oh my, I got goosebumps when I had my first bite. The recipe was great but I tweaked it a bit to make it more my taste.

And booy, was it good. I omitted the sugar and instead added some honey and added much much more chocolate than the recipe called for.

Then the final step was to make the chocolate ganache glaze and pour it over the tart. That's how I got this glossy look.

Monday, July 23, 2012

What's left to say about this cake?! It's a pretty cake, that actually tastes good!

I've always wanted to try and make this cake, I've seen a lot online and in some bakeries and said: ooooo! chocolate, I want to try that!

It's both yummy and easy on the eyes, don't you think?

And it's super easy to make. Just whip up your favorite chocolate fudge cake recipe, frost it, and align around 10-12 4-finger KitKats on the sides. Now this cake is usually made with smarties (which I surprisingly couldn't find in large quantities), so I opted to make them with colorful M&Ms.

Friday, July 13, 2012

I've always wanted to make a hat cake. Every time I drape fondant over a cake I think: "I should just keep the extra fondant and turned this into a hat!" But I'd already have other plans for the cake.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I just love red
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

But this time, THIS TIME: it was my aunt's birthday. And she (like me!) loves big hats! So I finally got to make one. And ofcourse, when you try and finally make something, it does not turn out the way you thought it would be. It was harder than I initially thought, but after creasing up the sides, I ended up with this awesome red hat!

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I had some left over purple fondant, so I cut up a sash and put it around the cake and made a cute little purple fondant bow and placed it on the side.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Oh oh, what I like a lot about this cake is that I took a break from all those chocolate cakes and made this (new found) White velvet butter cake from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible (I love this book, there's no recipe you can't find here!). I then iced it with Almond crunch buttercream (YUM!). This is a standard neoclassic buttercream recipe mixed with almond caramel crunch (which is roasted almonds topped with caramel and crushed to a powder!). It gives the cake this delicious crunch. This cake is AMAZING! You really REALLY have to try it!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Pink, pink, pink!! That's all I was thinking about while making this cake.

It's dee-licious chocolate cake on the inside with my usual marshmallow fondant on the outside. (Note to self: I should really start working on that marshmallow fondant tutorial!)

I made two batches of fondant, each with a different shade of pink.

The cake is covered with light pink fondant and decorated with pink daisies and red hearts! (I finally got to use my daisy cutters, which were PRETTY HARD to find!)

I've also recently stumbled upon many cake designers that work on the cake board as much as the cake. So I thought I'd try covering my cake boards from now on. This one was pretty simple. I just covered it with some white fondant and a long strip of pink fondant.